If a Man's Best Friend is a Dog, What's a Hobbit's?
by Rikkamaru
Summary: Twenty year old Bilbo finds a rather interesting dog-that's-not-a-dog pup, and takes care of it. Thirty years later, a bunch of dwarves barge into his house and later attempt to kill his dog. Bilbo is not impressed.


Don't own The Hobbit or cover.

Cover is done by snareser on DeviantArt.

If a Man's Best Friend is a Dog, What's a Hobbit's?

* * *

Bilbo was twenty, just starting in his tween years when he came across a rather hideous dog pup. It was the size of his foot, and was whimpering quite piteously up at him. It had a huge, blocky head and a short, flat snout. There was a large mass of muscle resting between its shoulders, its eyes were awkwardly set on its head and its fur was an odd red-brown color.

Despite how odd the pup looked, it was the first dog that Bilbo had actually met and it filled him with curiosity and pity. Why had its mother abandoned it so cruelly in Hobbitton? If any of the adults had found the pup, they would have killed it out of "mercy".

Letting his kind nature get the better of him, Bilbo offered his hand to the pup which sniffed it cautiously before jumping forward and licking him. Bilbo chuckled before gently picking the pup up, checking its gender carefully along the way. "A boy, huh?" he murmured. "I'll call you…Lokir. Well, let's get you some food, and see about hiding you from my parents, shall we?"

Lokir barked and cuddled closer to his new master.

* * *

And so Bilbo kept Lokir hidden from his parents' sights, training him and letting him hunt freely from the Old Forest. The beast grew quickly, to the point where his head was level with Bilbo's when their tenth summer together rolled around. The hobbit slowly learned to ride his loyal pet as one would a horse, the dog happy to carry his master across the land if meant more time with him.

While Bilbo did deeply mourn his mother's passing on his forty-fourth summer alive, he didn't hesitate to bring Lokir into the house for the first time, the large creature now somewhat towering over him as he padded as silent as a hobbit into the den before curling in front of the fire.

Bilbo had long ago decided that Lokir wasn't an actual dog as he was too large, intelligent, and long-living to possibly be a dog. He learned signals quickly, to the point where the two would actually converse with small movements, sounds, and actions. The other large give-away was his age. Twenty-four years and the creature seemed to only have just reached maturity.

No matter, Bilbo decided as he stretched out next to his companion by the fire, Lokir was his friend, and he was Lokir's pack mate. That's all there was to it.

* * *

When the dwarves started barging into his smial, Bilbo could only thank the Words that Lokir had gone out to hunt around that time; he didn't care for intruders – or other people in general. He didn't stumble under the weight of Kili and Fili's weapons as he might have once; his companion still liked to think himself a pup at times, so this was certainly no weight in comparison to those times.

It was as Thorin and Gandalf were discussing Bilbo's participation in some adventure or another when the door bell's ring echoed through the house, making everyone pause. The hobbit smiled as he recognized the briefness of it; Lokir had returned with kill to share.

Bilbo quickly excused himself and hurried to the door. He opened it quickly and picked up the deer carcass lying at his feet. "Did you get your share?" he asked, and Lokir grunted and took the leg he had torn off up from the ground. "Good." The hobbit smiled and started to move inside before pausing and turning once more. "We have guests, as you can probably smell, so be on your best behavior." The beast grunted an affirmation before entering the house, bumping against Bilbo playfully.

The halfling chortled and went to the kitchen. It was easy enough to carve the deer into different sections and place them in his icebox, especially seeing as how everything had been cleaned from it by his guests. He heard Lokir walk to the fireplace to lie before it, and smiled slightly. At least his dear friend was at ease.

Then he heard the dwarves shouting, and running in a panicked manner to the entrance of the house, where all of their weapons rested. He also heard Lokir snarl angrily, barking "_Enemy attack!_" throughout the house and hastened to the den where he saw some of the dwarves try to wrestle his pet to the ground as the others went to retrieve their weapons.

"What on earth is going on here?" Bilbo shouted, causing most of the people in the room to pause and shoot him surprised glances. Lokir took that moment to shake off his aggressors and moved to stand in front of his master protectively.

"Master Baggins, this warg was just wandering through your house!" Balin shouted, hoping to convince the hobbit to move aside.

He got a raised eyebrow as a response. "And this causes all of you to become rather homicidal rude visitors?" He paused and then looked at Lokir. "At least now we know what breed you are." His companion's attempted flat look was ruined when he let out an amused chuff.

The dwarves paused, confused by the warg and hobbit's lack of action towards the other's presence. "So you simply let wild beasts enter your house as they please?" Thorin asked, beginning to question the sanity of the supposed burglar.

"_Well he let you lot in, didn't he?"_ Lokir growled, only to yelp slightly when Bilbo gently smacked his haunch.

"None of that, sir. I won't have you insulting people who can't understand you." Bilbo's scolding didn't stop the slight smile from appearing on his face, his amusement lessening the severity of his reprimand.

Lokir's tail wagged once, pleased in the offhand praise, and the dwarves nearly dropped their weapons in surprise.

"You…you understand that warg?" Ori asked, his eyes wide with curiosity.

"Of course I do! You don't live with someone for thirty years without learning how to understand them, now do you?" Bilbo was smiling, but that faded when he saw their horribly confused faces. "What's wrong _now_?"

"You've lived with this creature for thirty years?"

"Technically I've lived with him for seven years, but he's been with me for thirty years, yes." When their stares didn't let up, Lokir huffed and turned, picking Bilbo up by the collar of his shirt and taking him to his bedroom. "Well, I'll see you all tomorrow, then. He may not like you, but Lokir loves adventure, so we'll most likely be joining you. Good night!" After that, his voice faded off, leaving the dwarves stupefied in his living room. Then Kili blinked, and looked at the others.

"What just happened?"

* * *

It didn't turn out exactly like I expected it to, but I like it none the less. Bilbo swearing to "Words" is a reference to another of my fics, "Power in Words".

As a note, Lokir is a Mordor warg (so he resembles the wargs from TTT).

Please review.

Ja ne!


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